Traits Most Often Confused With Mojo

I am called MojoDave. Sometimes, I have been called the “miracle man”. Take one look at my bio. By all rights, I should not still be alive. But since I am, I write about mojo in the hope of helping you understand it.

There is often confusion between various traits and mojo. For example, in an earlier post, I described mojo as having several components. Sometimes, one of these components might be confused with mojo itself. Other traits may also be confused with mojo. Let’s consider some of the most common components first.

• Motivation - Some think that motivation is everything as far as performance is concerned. Nevertheless, there are many who are highly motivated who lack the experience and/or expertise to succeed. In your own life, think about people who are called “workout warriors.” They may want to succeed in the worst way, but they just don’t know how Even though motivation is the most important component of mojo, in my opinion, it is not sufficient to be called mojo.
• Experience - It is pretty clear that while experience is a part of mojo, the person with the most experience may not have IT. There is a magical quality to mojo that does not come with experience.
• Luck - I define luck as being unpredictable. True, to exhibit mojo you need to be lucky. But you might not be lucky again whether or not you have mojo. In the long run, if you have mojo, you will be lucky more often than not.

There are also other traits that can be confused with mojo.

• Intelligence - This is an important and relevant characteristic, but it isn’t the same as mojo. For one thing, a person may have intelligence in an irrelevant area. Unless the area of intelligence is specifically relevant to a given activity, it may not lead to mojo. All of us have heard of a person who has a lot of “book learning,” but no common sense. Chances are this kind of person will not have much mojo Sometimes, a person will appear to lack formal education, but have expertise in the areas that are important to have mojo. We sometimes speak of players in a given sport, say football, having a high football IQ. This is relevant expertise even if general intelligence is lacking.
• Good genetic makeup - 
  
  
  If a person has a close relative who was good at something, it is more likely that they will be too. Recruiters have used this knowledge to their advantage. However, having mojo takes more than good genes. There are many examples of fathers and sons where the father was much better than the son (Michael Jordan, Tony Doresett), and vice versa (Archie Manning and his sons, Peytin and Eli). When it comes to the elite of the elite, genetic predictions break down. Mojo is very rare.

• Good track record - This is the most likely trait to indicate that a person who had mojo before will have it again. Nevertheless, there is luck involved in mojo, so there is no guarantee that a previous performance will be repeated.
• Leadership -
  
  
  Leadership may be found in individuals who don’t possess some of the components of mojo. Leadership requires a charismatic individual who people naturally want to follow. That individual may not be an expert, not have experience directly in the chosen field, may not have had good support or the faith to follow it. However, if people still desire to follow that person, he is a leader. Even though both mojo and leadership have poorly understood aspects, they are different. Mojo has a magical quality that helps those who have it to perform themselves. Leadership, on the other hand, is about the performance of a team, regardless of the abilities of the leader.